BILL INTRODUCED TO TRACK ALL POLICE SHOOTINGS/ IN THE MEANTIME THERE'S GOOGLE NEWS

The bill, introduced Tuesday by two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, would cover both fatal and non-fatal shootings by police, as well as other instances of police using deadly force, the senators announced.

In the meantime Google News is getting better at tracking police shootings.

Feeling Rebloggy

According to the Washington Post, 466 people have been killed by cops this year. The Guardian, which is also keeping track of police killings through it’s own database, has tallied 568.

(A quick note: one reason why the The Guardian’s count is higher than The Post’s is because it counts all police killings, not just shootings....)

The Post and The Guardian are relying on Fatal Encounters and Killed By Police, two independent websites that track police shootings, to compile their databases, according to The Marshall Project. Those websites are using Google News, which allows users to set up custom searches of news topics and email those findings via “alerts...”

[However, the] media isn’t a reliable counter of police shootings because, well, it isn’t their job. And there is a chance that local media aren’t covering every shooting, either...